THE EMIGRANT IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. BY J. W. F. BLUNDELL, Esq. LEGITIMIST REVELATIONS OF THE LATE FRENCH REVOLUTION SOUTH WALES. BY JOSEPH PHIPPS TOWNSEND. THE COURSE OF A REVOLUTION; OR, THE PARTHENOPŒAN REPUBLIC.—ADVENTURES OF THE FIRST SETTLERS ON THE OREGON, OR THE COLUMBIA RIVER. ALEXANDER ROSS.-FAMILY FAILINGS.- FRANK FORESTER AND HIS (FOR JUNE):- -THE LOTTERY OF MARRIAGE. BY MRS. TROLLOPE.-MAXIMS OF SIR MORGAN O'DOHERTY, BART.-CRICHTON. BY WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH, ESQ. THIRD EDITION.-SEVEN TALES BY SEVEN AUTHORS. EDITED BY THE AUTHOR OF "FRANK FAIR- LEGH."-RIZZIO; OR, SCENES IN EUROPE DURING THE SIXTEENTH CEN- TURY. BY THE LATE MR. IRELAND. THE DEAN OF YORK'S "NEW SYS- TEM OF GEOLOGY."-MABEL CARRINGTON. THE PROTESTANT LEADER. BY EUGENE SUE.-JULAMERK. A TALE OF THE NESTORIANS. BY MRS. SOUTHERN COAST OF ENGLAND. THE SEA-SIDE BOOK. BY W. HARVEY, M.D. THE RAILWAY COMPANION FROM CHESTER TO HOLYHEAD, &C. &C. BY EDWARD PARRY.-THe works of G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.: 1. ARABELLA STUART; A ROMANCE FROM ENGLISH HISTORY: 2. THIRTY YEARS SINCE; OR, THE RUINED FAMILY: 3. AGINCOURT.-A MANUAL OF BOTANY. JOHN HUTTON BALFOUR, M.D., F.L.S.-CASUALTIES AFLOAT. BY LIEU- TENANT A. F. KYNASTON, R.N.-CONFESSIONS OF A HYPOCHONDRIAC. BY M.R.C.S.THE ALBATROSS; OR, VOICES FROM THE OCEAN. BY WIL- :-BRITISH HOMES AND FOREIGN WANDER- INGS. BY LADY LISTER KAYE.-FANNY HERVEY; OR, THE MOTHER'S CHOICE. KALOOLAH; OR, JOURNEYINGS TO THE DJEBEL KUMRI. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JONATHAN ROMER. EDITED BY W. S. MAYO, M.D.— MANNERS AMD CUSTOMS OF THE GREEKS. TRANSLATED FROM THE GER- MAN OF THEODOR PANOFKA.- THE REVOLUTION AT VIENNA. A NARRA- TIVE OF EVENTS IN VIENNA, FROM LATOUR TO WINDISCHGRATZ (SEP- NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. THE FAIRY HOW K. A LEGEND OF CUMBERLAND. BY THE AUTHOR OF "AZETH: THE EGYPTIAN," &c. NEAR the pretty village of Caldbeck which lies nested in a small well-wooded valley, is a spot as singular for its beauty as for its legendary interest. It is the Fairy Howk, which contains the fairies' cauldron, the fairies' bridge, and the fairies' church. This howk, or delf, or hollow, is a mass of rocks through which the waters foam in unbridled wildness, revelling through the thick moss, away into the dark wood, down the mountain-side, foaming and rushing and cresting their white waves, roaring through the cave and over the stones, as though that narrow torrent bore the responsibility of all other earthly torrents in its speed. A wild foolish thing is yon fairy river, with its ceaseless toil, its unwearied hubbub, its endless excitement! The cowslips and dog-violets clustering on its banks look out from lofty stem and lowly bed, to mirror themselves wonderingly in that furious stream. Down, down it hurries into the deep blackness of the fairy cauldron; and there you may see it-if your head be steady, and your footing secure on that mossy branch slippery with spray, and you can bend over the whirling eddy without losing your self-possession-you may see it fuming and fretting, and casting up its white waters through the midnight gloom, as if eager to escape into the daylight, maddened with its imprisonment there. you The church is a cave formed under the river. You go down some wet and steep natural steps, where you must be careful not to make but one stride from the top to the bottom, so insecure are they; and then find yourself in a vaulted cavern, where there is a window, and a lancetshaped arch, and pillars, and huge rocks that seem held up by magic, for you see no possible support, and fragments strewn about the floor, which make you think tenderly of home, and remind you that you have a life to be knocked out by some of these "giants' ribs." And here they say the fairies held their matins and their even-song. Speak softly and speak reverently of the good people! True, you will not find them now gamboling on railway lines, nor lurking in manufactory chimneys; but, thank Heaven! all the world does not go by steam, and there are still some nooks and corners in dear Old England where the fairies may dwell and the children run wild. Children, fairies, flowers, and birds; the dark wood with its scarlet fungi, its anemones, primroses, cowslips, strange creeping things, and unusual life; the stream with its furious torrents, its smooth still resting-places, its silvery currents, its lane of limpid crystal; and heaven above all, wafting spring airs or summer warmth, showering down love and joy as the dewdrops in the morning :-oh! May-VOL. LXXXVI. NO. CCCXLI. B is not such a life as this worth all that cities can afford?-is not such a childhood the richest heritage which parents can bestow? Aye, in truth is it! The foundation is then laid of an after-time of deep joy in thought, of purity at the least in retrospection, of a connexion in manhood with that heavenly day when the child first looked up wonderingly, seeking to know the mysteries of nature and the will of its GOD. And dearest of all playmates, and living and palpable and present as the bird, and the toy, and the household pet, are the beautiful fairy-folk, those best patrons of childhood-companions while superiors. up its Well!-at Caldbeck, in the dark wood where the Howk hides magic beauties, the child may yet tread the halls of its fairy friends, and dream on those green banks, nestling among the flowers, till its little heart knows deeper things than its manhood's pride will own. gra In days long, long ago, the fairies dwelt here in sensuous shape. Seen often by the village people, and loved because they were beautiful and themselves were innocent, they made a fine revel-time in the old woods. Laughter rung through the trees, and startled the wood-pigeons as they sat wooing each other among the branches, and shook the nests of the young linnets, and brought back the wren and the lark to their homes; and in the moonlight strange sweet shapes flitted about, which vanished as you looked at them, and mocked you as you tried to fashion them out to your senses. Now as fleeting gleams of a light that seemed made up of life; now as an unembodied influence, a presence that fell around you though you saw nothing of its cause; here as a strange shadow that changed into a thousand things at once, and there as merry eyes peeping from the briars and the roses; this moment as a song that broke close, close upon your ear, and the next, as a distant peal of laughter, which dually died away to a small silvery tinkling like the clashing of flowerleaves bound in dew; as all most beautiful most magical impressions did the fairy-world reveal itself to man. And kindly offices the good people did among the simple village folk. If the harvest-moon looked paler than usual, or the south-west wind sighed mournfully over the fields, the work went rapidly forward; the corn was sheared, the clover mown, the hay stacked, in far less time than the dozen labourers could have done it; and for all payments of these good offices they but required sanctity of place and a tender love. But it was only the simple and industrious, the honest, hard-working, ingenuous man, whom they helped; it was only the modest maid whose life they lightened, only the chaste matron whose cares they lessened. Unthrift, neglect, or wickedness, was punished with all their fairy malice; by mocking benefits which, so tempting at the onset, became afterwards disasters; by scoffing jeers screamed out from the top of some high pine-tree, or from behind the angle of some rough rock, for all the village to hear; sometimes by blows and pinches in the dark; by every mischievous deceit, by every vexatious cross, did the fairies revenge themselves on those who disturbed their home, or failed in their own simple moral duties. The things that the fairies loved above all were children. Often those who were docile and simple would return home with some gay jewel, which, if its possession gained them ill will, changed into a useless piece of tin, or common pebble, when others looked at it; or if they themselves forfeited the fairy favour, it would become a creeping lizard, a slimy worm, or a sharp nail that cut, handle it which way you would; sometimes they returned from the haunted meadows with garlands of roses and sweet flowers round their necks-flowers which never faded, and the scents of which were almost heavenly, they were so delicious. And these children generally grew up beautiful and prosperous; but, if those witched gifts faded and changed, they were more ugly, froward, and unfortunate, than any of their neighbours. The fairies were fond of showing themselves to the village folk, as a troop of gay knights and ladies decked in the brightest garments, riding superbly caparisoned horses, and caracolling on the green sward of the fells; as a flock of rare birds alighting among the fruit trees, and the large cabbage roses, the tiger-lilies, and the peonies of the little gardens; as a flight of moths, and butterflies, and ladybirds, and dragonflies-all gold and green and purple, sparkling in the sun as if each fibre had been a gem; as minstrels wandering through, singing such divine unearthly songs, that it made the heart mad to hear them; and sometimes, rarest show of all, as beautiful flowers that sprung up in large fields of golden glory to scent the air far and wide with their intoxicating perfume, and then faded away as the noon sun shone over them. And it was always known when these appearances had been from the good people of the Howk, by the gifts and prosperity left behind. But as time wore on, and these simple hamlet people became enlightened the saints forfend !--the fairies grew more shy, and the visits which gladdened the whole scene, at least once in every generation, grew more rare and rare, and at last were wholly discontinued; sad evidence of the approaching desolation when they should never come at all, when men should be left to their own follies, unrebuked by such fair spiritual monitors, and when virtue should strive unassisted by elf or fay. And at last the Fairy Howk, though still spoken of reverently, and passed by at convenient distance, avoided at nightfall too, as of old, became a kind of tame lion of the neighbourhood, a thing which strangers were to see, its teeth and claws being plucked out. And thus it continued for many years. And only songs, and shouts, and laughter heard in the moonlight, and only mocking shapes and strange shadows flitting athwart the benighted peasant's way, now told that the old place was still inhabited by its beautiful tenants; while the deeper green of the moss, the greater luxuriance of the trees, and the sweeter prodigality of the flowers, alone attested to their presence. Down in the village, yet removed from all near neighbours, lived a lonely widow dame. She was not young, she was not pretty; a sunburnt, hard-featured woman was she, stern in appearance, reserved and unsocial; yet her cottage was the cleanest, her garden the neatest and best kept, stocked the most fully with flowers and fruit-trees and vegetables, her bees the most thriving, and her poultry the healthiest of any in the village. She had married, some five years ago, a foreign merchant-man who had suddenly come to Caldbeck, bringing a pedlar's pack, as he said, to dispose of its wares among the simple village girls. And most gorgeous things that pack contained! Not all the gallant court of the gracious sovereign, the Lion-Heart of England's chivalry, could furnish out more splendid finery than that bronzed and foreign sailor carried. And he sold them too for such a trifle! A kiss from a pretty girl would give her a zone of rubies, or a diamond of the finest is not such a life as this worth all that cities can afford?-is not such a childhood the richest heritage which parents can bestow? Aye, in truth is it! The foundation is then laid of an after-time of deep joy in thought, of purity at the least in retrospection, of a connexion in manhood with that heavenly day when the child first looked up wonderingly, seeking to know the mysteries of nature and the will of its GOD. And dearest of all playmates, and living and palpable and present as the bird, and the toy, and the household pet, are the beautiful fairy-folk, those best patrons of childhood-companions while superiors. Well!-at Caldbeck, in the dark wood where the Howk hides up its magic beauties, the child may yet tread the halls of its fairy friends, and dream on those green banks, nestling among the flowers, till its little heart knows deeper things than its manhood's pride will own. as you gra In days long, long ago, the fairies dwelt here in sensuous shape. Seen often by the village people, and loved because they were beautiful and themselves were innocent, they made a fine revel-time in the old woods. Laughter rung through the trees, and startled the wood-pigeons as they sat wooing each other among the branches, and shook the nests of the young linnets, and brought back the wren and the lark to their homes; and in the moonlight strange sweet shapes flitted about, which vanished looked at them, and mocked you as you tried to fashion them out to your senses. Now as fleeting gleams of a light that seemed made up of life; now as an unembodied influence, a presence that fell around you though you saw nothing of its cause; here as a strange shadow that changed into a thousand things at once, and there as merry eyes peeping from the briars and the roses; this moment as a song that broke close, close upon your ear, and the next, as a distant peal of laughter, which dually died away to a small silvery tinkling like the clashing of flowerleaves bound in dew; as all most beautiful most magical impressions did the fairy-world reveal itself to man. And kindly offices the good people did among the simple village folk. If the harvest-moon looked paler than usual, or the south-west wind sighed mournfully over the fields, the work went rapidly forward; the corn was sheared, the clover mown, the hay stacked, in far less time than the dozen labourers could have done it; and for all payments of these good offices they but required sanctity of place and a tender love. But it was only the simple and industrious, the honest, hard-working, ingenuous man, whom they helped; it was only the modest maid whose life they lightened, only the chaste matron whose cares they lessened. Unthrift, neglect, or wickedness, was punished with all their fairy malice; by mocking benefits which, so tempting at the onset, became afterwards disasters; by scoffing jeers screamed out from the top of some high pine-tree, or from behind the angle of some rough rock, for all the village to hear; sometimes by blows and pinches in the dark; by every mischievous deceit, by every vexatious cross, did the fairies revenge themselves on those who disturbed their home, or failed in their own simple moral duties. The things that the fairies loved above all were children. Often those who were docile and simple would return home with some gay jewel, which, if its possession gained them ill will, changed into a useless piece of tin, or common pebble, when others looked at it; or if they themselves forfeited the fairy favour, it would become a creeping lizard, a slimy worm, or a sharp nail that cut, handle it which way you would; sometimes they |